PS3 enables "Play while downloading" for The Last of Us

May 20, 2013

If you recall back in February at the Sony PS4 reveal event, Lead System Architect Mark Cerny revealed one of the systems key components for those who wish download their games digitally. Whilst consumers may choose to purchase the hard copy of their PS4 games, there are many who are choosing to take the digital route of purchasing their content. Sony are looking to improve this experience on the PS4 by allowing the user to stream their purchased games via the PSN. This means, you may download your game and once it reaches a certain percentage, you may boot the game while the rest of it is downloading in the background. While this was announced to be a first for any console on the market, it seems that the PS3 may take that thunder away from the PS4. It was announced that Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us will bring that feature to the PS3 early.

Mark Cerny talking about the improved User Experience for the PS4, including the “play while download” feature.

Naughty Dog’s creative director Neil Druckmann and Developer Bruce Straley, spoke with Game Informer and they report that the game will be playable once 50% of the content has been downloaded, cutting wait time in half. Straley told Game Informer that “Sony has worked a little magic so that you won’t have much of a delay before playing the digital version”. Although there is a little wait on downloading The Last of Us, as this is all obviously to test the feature and see how well it is perceived, and see how many bugs and issues will arise from it, Sony has guaranteed that, on the PlayStation 4, all downloadable games will be instantly playable while the download continues on in the background.

Related to this, the first 40 Minutes of The Last of Us was leaked yesterday online. Click here to check that out, and be sure to stick around to Dashhacks this week for more PlayStation 4 Information and the Huge XBOX reveal this Tuesday.